What you celebrate becomes what you are
Happy Map, Kill Chain, and The Art of Noticing (#568)
As you're reading this, I'm on my way to a four-week holiday with my family. It's the longest break we've taken since the kids came into our lives, and I want to make the most of it. Which means: the next Weekly Filet will arrive on May 1st.
Here's to hoping nothing much will happen in the world so that you'll be fine without my weekly sensemaking. (And if you happen to miss me so dearly, there's always the archive with lots of great links with long half-lives.)
I already look forward to being back in your inboxes in May, but for now, there's one more issue to help you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. Let's dive in.
1. Learnings on building community and holding space
We all are in one way or another, professionally and/or privately, building community. These are 23 learnings to keep in mind and take inspiration from. My favourite ones:
- Community is a thousand one-on-ones, not one big warm room.
- Your first 100 people are the community’s energetic constitution.
- Friendship is a byproduct of shared pursuit, never a goal in itself.
- What you celebrate becomes what you are: choose with extraordinary care.
Patricia Mou
2. What the War Has Done to Iranians
As most of the world is focusing on the geopolitical ramifications and the impact of rising fossil energy prices, let's not forget those that are affected by this war first and foremost. This beautifully illustrated dispatch shows what life for ordinary Iranians is like. They are exhausted, scared, and feel they are losing no matter what happens – «because we are killed both by our own government and by bombing from foreign forces.»
Cora Engelbrecht
3. Kill Chain
An excellent analysis of the automated bureaucratic machinery that is changing how decisions in war are made – and that got 175 children killed in Iran. «The United States military has been trying to close the gap between seeing something and destroying it for as long as that gap has existed.» Closing that gap now means automating more and more steps along the «kill chain». «The real question, the question almost nobody was asking, is [...] what happened to the kill chain, and the answer is Palantir.
Kevin Baker
4. Happy Map
Super cute map of happy people. But because it's 2026, the story beneath is a bit more somber.
The Pudding
5. Your country can't feed you
Fascinating data analysis: Only one country on the planet can currently feed its people a healthy diet from domestic production alone. Many come close, but still fall short in at least one of seven food groups. Now, that's not a problem per se, that's what we've got trade for. Still interesting. Can you guess which country is the exception?
Amanda Shendruk
Dataguessr of the week
Update your knowledge of the world. One quiz at a time. This week:
What else?
Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.
- Every single one of Hong Kong’s 2,549 basketball courts, photographed from above.
- Beautiful page, so much to discover: Rolling Stone Interview Archive.
- Pretty solid theory, I'd say.
- Draw a horse.
- These images are...puzzling.
- What if you kept digging downward?
- Check your stereotypes. Ballotguessr is like Geoguessr, but you need to guess how a district voted in the 2024 US election, based on a single Street View image.
Books for curious minds
Some new ones as I read them, some older ones that continue to inform how I look at the world and myself.
For more than ten years, every autumn I meet with a group of friends for an extended weekend somewhere in a large house in the middle of nowhere. One tradition is our book club: Everyone brings a book that had a lasting impression on them in the year past and tells the group about it. In the end, everyone gets to pick one book. Last time, I picked this one and it has been an inspiring companion since. Buy it here.
A gem from the archive
David Bauer
The Weekly Filet archive offers more than 2800 hand-picked links since 2011, like this one. You can search by interests, explore collections or shuffle for a gem.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. Have a nice April and I look forward to seeing you again in May.
— David
Some more useful things for you while I'm away...
Check my 📚 digital bookshelf, with sections of 🌡️ books that help you make sense of the climate crisis, ⛵ books that make you a better product manager, 🪄 books that help you make sense of AI, and 🧒 books that help you as a parent. And from collecting the best links on the web for close to 15 years, my thematic collections: The Art of Thinking (Differently), The Stuff Our Modern World Runs On, Bingeworthy Podcasts, and more.
🌍 You Don't Know Africa, a simple game that has already humbled millions of people. 💯 Choose Impact, an online tool to compare job opportunities. 🧭 Priority Compass, a tool for individuals, teams and organisations to focus your energy on what really matters. 🪄 How I Use AI, a collection of use cases, ready to use and adapt. 💬 Climate Questions, a playful conversation starter. And ⏱️ One Minute Challenge, a little meaningful distraction to refocus.
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